ABC News(NEW YORK) — Hillary Clinton on Tuesday proposed a $2 billion plan to reform public schools in low income areas and end the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Clinton announced the proposal during a speech on race at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. She called for an end to zero-tolerance discipline policies in schools, which she says disproportionately affects African American children and has helped lead to the country’s mass incarceration problem.
Clinton’s plan is part of her new “Breaking Down Barriers” agenda, which includes an investment of $20 billion to create youth jobs, $5 billion in reentry programs for formerly incarcerated people and $25 billion to help entrepreneurship and small business growth in low-income communities.
Her remarks Tuesday came just hours after a meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton and other prominent civil rights leaders at the National Urban League in downtown Manhattan.
“My campaign is really about breaking every barrier because I believe absolutely that America can’t live up to its potential unless every individual has the opportunity to live up to theirs,” Clinton said during the meeting.
Taking a knock at her Democratic presidential opponent, Bernie Sanders, she added: “I’m not a single issue candidate. We don’t live in a single issue country and we have work to do.”
Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
